[2] On 22 July 1987, while outside the London offices of al-Qabas, a Kuwaiti newspaper for which he drew political caricatures,[2][7] Al-Ali was shot in the neck and mortally wounded.

Al-Ali was born in 1938 or thereabouts in the northern Palestinian village of Al-Shajara, located between Tiberias and Nazareth (now subsumed by Ilaniya).

After graduation, he worked in the orchards of Sidon, then moved to Tripoli where he attended the White Friars' vocational school for two years.

[citation needed] Al-Ali then moved to Beirut, where he lived in a tent in Shatila refugee camp and worked in various industrial jobs.

The writer and political activist Ghassan Kanafani saw some of Al-Ali's cartoons on a visit to Ain al-Hilweh and printed the artist's first published drawings along with an accompanying article in issue 88 of Al-Hurriya, dated 25 September 1961.

Al-Ali was a fierce opponent of any settlement that would not vindicate the Palestinian people's right to all of historic Palestine, and many of his cartoons express this position.

[14] The artist explained that the ten-year-old represented his age when forced to leave Palestine and would not grow up until he could return to his homeland;[15] his turned back and clasped hands symbolised the character's rejection of "outside solutions".

"[15] Other characters in Al-Ali's cartoons include a thin, miserable-looking man representing the Palestinian as the defiant victim of Israeli oppression and other hostile forces, and a fat man representing the Arab regimes and Palestinian political leaders who led an easy life and engaged in political compromises which the artist fervently opposed.

[citation needed] It is still not known who opened fire on Al-Ali outside the London office of Kuwaiti newspaper Al Qabas in Ives Street on 22 July 1987.

[22] It was later revealed that Mossad had two double agents working in London-based PLO hit teams and had advance knowledge of the killing.

[22] By refusing to pass on the relevant information to their British counterparts, Mossad earned the displeasure of Britain, which retaliated by expelling three Israeli diplomats, one of whom was the embassy attache identified as the handler for the two agents.

[22] A furious Margaret Thatcher, then prime minister, closed Mossad’s London base in Palace Green, Kensington.

During an event at Abdullah Al-Salem High School in Kuwait, Yasser Arafat was also quoted saying,"The one whose name is Naji al-Ali, if he continues to paint, I will put his fingers in acid.

[citation needed] A movie was made about the life of Al-Ali in Egypt, with the Egyptian actor Nour El-Sherif playing the lead role.